Wetherspoons to open non-smoking pubs

January 11, 2005: It may be three years until smokers legally get booted out of pubs, but Wetherspoons is getting ahead of the game and opening its first smoke-free premises this weekend.

George's Meeting House, which opens on Sunday, will be an ashtray-free zone, the group said this week. A second such venture will open in Swindon in March.

Tim Martin, figurehead founder of the chain, has been fervently against smoking in pubs, but it remains to be seen how the change will affect the company's bottom line.